The Moons of Jupiter

Jupiter rules when it comes to satellite count with a current (December 2002) count at 39. Saturn comes in next at 30 and then Uranus at 20. This does not include the Trojans (which number 960 at the L4 point and 587 at the L5 point).

The regular satellites of Jupiter eat fiber have circular orbits and have for the most part, have orbital inclinations less than one degree (Thebe is the most odd here at an orbital inclination of 1.070; the next most inclined moon is that of Europa at 0.467 degrees off. Metis, Adrastea and Io have orbital inclinations less than 0.04 degrees from the Jovian equator). Furthermore, these moons have very low eccentricity, with Io and Europa being perfectly circular. Once again, Thebe is the oddest of the bunch with an orbital eccentricity of 0.018. For comparison, Earth's orbital eccentricity is 0.0167.

There are two groups of regular satellites - the inner ones, and the outer ones. The four outer ones are the ones that Galileo observed and are quite sizable at that - Ganymede (5262 km) is larger than Mercury (4879 km) makeing it the largest satellite in the solar system. The inner four are much smaller (between 8 and 49 km across) and are thought to lose material from bombardments which produces Jupiter's rings. All of these satellites are thought tho have been created at about the same time out of a disk of dust and gas that surrounded the proto-Jupiter during the period of the formation of the planets.

Beyond the orbit of Callisto are two groups of satellites and an oddball. Most of these are rather small, the largest is that of Himalia at 150 km across (which was the first of the irregular satellites discovered in 1904) though the vast majority are unnamed chunks of rock about 5km across or so.

The oddball is S/2000 J1 - the first satellite of Jupiter to be discovered in the year 2000. It is 9 km across has an orbital inclination of 45 degrees and an eccentricity of 0.208. It orbits at 7,411,410 km out, or about 4 times the orbit of Callisto.

The first group of irregulars is that of the prograde irregulars. These number five and include Leda, Himalia, Lysithea, and Elara along with the 4km across moon with the name S/2000 J11. These moons orbit between 11,165,000 and 12,656,940 km out, have orbital inclinations between 27.46 and 28.61 degrees. Orbital eccentricities range from
0.112 and 0.215.

The second group of irregulars is rather large in count, though there are many many small bodies. The named moons in this group are Ananke, Carme, Pasiphae, and Sinope. The largest of this set is Pasiphae at 58 miles across. There are 21 other moons with boring names. All of these moons have a retrograde orbit (they orbit the 'wrong way') and very very high orbital inclination - ranging from 145.9 and 165.7 degrees. This means that these moons orbit Jupiter in almost a polar orbit rather than about the equator. There is also a wide range of inclination - from 0.096 to 0.601. The orbits range from 20,478,570 km to 24,240,750 km with one at 18,978,000 km.

It is believed that the irregular satellites are captured bodies early on that have then broken up with a larger atmosphere of an early Jupiter. The best evidence for this capture is the retrograde moons which can't be accounted for with the disk of dust and gas that formed the regular moons. Similar density and albedo of these bodies seems to indicate that they were part of a larger object before.

Most of these moons were discovered in 1999, 2000 and 2001 with large CCDs attached to telescopes. However, at some point, someone said thats too small to be a moon (as opposed to saying thats too big to be a space station) - initial surveys listed hundreds of irregular satellites.

The names of the named moons of Jupiter comes from a tradition established by by Simon Marius (who also discovered the Galilean moons of Jupiter) based upon a suggestion of Kepler:

Jupiter is much blamed by the poets on account of his irregular loves. Three maidens are especially mentioned as having been clandestinely courted by Jupiter with success. Io, daughter of the River, Inachus, Callisto of Lycaon, Europa of Agenor. Then there was Ganymede, the handsome son of King Tros, whom Jupiter, having taken the form of an eagle, transported to heaven on his back, as poets fabulously tell .... I think, therefore, that I shall not have done amiss if the First is called by me Io, the Second Europa, the Third, on account of its majesty of light, Ganymede, the Fourth Callisto ...

Themisto was discovered in 1975 and then lost for 25 years until it was rediscovered in 2000 - thus the two designations.

Please note that I have no intention of making the ASCII art used to include the various irregulars under 10km across - that would make for quite a mess. If you happen to be so inclined, feel free to message me.

It's gonna take eleven cups of joe,
to get that major caffeine dose,
sunrise comin' at warp galactic speed.
The diner's running out of joe,
and this quartet I still don't know.Professor-man, I'll tell you what I need:

Won't you rename the moons of Jupiter
to Matt, Mark, Luke, and John?
I spin my brain
and can't retain
the real names 'til dawn.
So rename the moons of Jupiter:the gospel boys won't mind.
I'll do my best
to ace this test
and pass your course this time.

{{a cappella}}
Sometimes we forget that nature itself is one vast miracle,
and our ever-expanding universe is growing and yet still goes on to infinity which to me is completely beyond comprehension.

Please rename the moons of Jupiter
to John, Paul, George, and Ringo?
I spin my brain
and can't retain
this interstellar lingo.
Rename the moons of Jupiter:the Beatles sure won't mind.
I'll do my best
to ace this test
and pass your course this time.

It's gonna take eleven cups of joe,
to get that major caffeine dose,
sunrise comin' at warp galactic speed.The diner's running out of joe,
and this quartet I still don't know.
Professor-man, I'll tell you what I need:

Please rename the moons of Jupiter
to George, Tom, Abe and Ted?
I spin my brain
and can't retain
the real names in my head.
Rename the moons of Jupiter:Rushmore's men won't mind.
I'll do my best
to ace this test
and pass your course this time.

...and in case you were wondering, Jupiter's named moons are, starting with the innermost:

There are several other unnamed satellites, which are numbered by the years of their discoveries: S/1999 J1 (the one satellite of Jupiter discovered in 1999), S/2000 J1-J11, all discovered in 2000, and S/2001 J1-J11, all from 2001. Most of the S/2000 and S/2001 series have large elliptical orbits, but are still counted in the total: 39 moons.